What's going on over at Metropolitan? I saw scaffolding set up out front and what looked like painters over there on Wednesday of this week. The sign on the door says 'closed for renovations'.

Bacon Girl- here is a link
just for you!!!!!
I'm not sure how I feel about it but I can't wait to hear your opinion.

EL: I hope this can be posted.
Restaurant.com has a 80% off sale for Friday only. Some great restaurants are included. The site is extremely slow, but be patient. I haven't tried it yet, but it comes from "MyBargainBuddy" which I get great deals from all the time.
Click here.

I've not only tried chocolate covered bacon, I've actually made it. I was surprisingly good.

Saw over on Chowhound that Corks is also closing for renovations and a change in theme.

SWNAJ - thanks SO MUCH. I was a little HURT by that GRUMPY owl this morning, and this made everything better.

Bacon chocolate? With sea salt? I am dying to try it, and I'm 100% sure it's great. Everyone in that article seemed to think so, even though, like you, they were skeptical before they tried it. As the title says, "Everything is better with Bacon."

There was a fire at Metropolitan several weeks ago. It's expected to reopen soon.

Randy,

Metropolitan was damaged by a fire about a month ago. From what I've heard, they are doing everything they can to re-open as fast as they can.

Randy-
Metropolitan had a electrical fire, I believe. They are closed for at least 3 more months.

God bless Joe Squared. I like what that place is doing; nevertheless, I am just not going to go to North Avenue. I simply don't feel safe there. Perhaps my opinion is irrational, but as someone who lived for years in Mount Vernon, I am unwilling to cross Lanvale Street.

hmmm, but I would love to have some coal fired pizza.

Corks' recording says closed until late September for renovations. Anyone know if these places might not reopen?

Coal fired pizza? Having once gone into a coal mine, I don't think I could eat that without being ill.

Coal fired pizza!! Still the best (and I'll defend their claim to be the first American) pizza I ever had comes from Frank Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana off Wooster Square in New Haven, CT. Their coal fired oven has been in use since Moses crossed the Housatonic and I swear the caramelization of the crust gets better every decade. And be careful how you order ... if you want cheese, ya gotta ask for it. A plain pizza is chopped Italian tomatoes on crust.

Not only is Junior's Wine Bar web site totally unhelpful, it reads like "Junior swine bar."

I love coal fired pizza at the New York places but Phat Pug was just plain not good. I hope Joe doesn't bring them in as consultants.

RoCK: My wife shared your concerns about Joe Squared's location, though we live in Federal Hill -- not as much of a sanctuary we thought it was. However, she's ready to go back. With the nearby expansions of U of B and MICA, it looked to me like a college neighborhood clientele. With daylight saving, the area looked OK to me early in the evening. I might not go back late for the music.

SusanWNAJ and others: The restaurant.com 80% off special has been extended 2 days due to overwhelming demand. You can order up until 11:59pm on 08/10. (My sister forwards their emails to me.)

I've received certificates from restaurant.com twice as gifts and prefer only using them the first time I try a new place. I am somewhat uncomfortable using them at a non-chain neighborhood place where I frequent and know the owners.

EL, maybe this could be a topic? I'm curious how others feel about this.

We loved our whole expereince at Cork's during Restaurant Week that I'm sorry to hear that ut will be making renovations and a change in theme. We loved it just as it was!!

I must have been really upset about the changes at Corks since I made a lot of typos in my last post and, obviously, didn't proofread it very well.

Rosebud: you should/could get a job with the Sun. Your mistakes are nothing compared with theirs.
See the post "Next Sunday's Review" and the accompanying comments.
And to think they get paid to make those mistakes.
We make ours for free!

RoCK - It is really really weird for me to hang out at Joe Squared. I've lived in Baltimore for a mere 12 years now, and most of that was in Mt. Vernon or Otterbein. North Avenue is still a shooting gallery in my mind (both for drugs & guns). BUT it has changed! Somehow. Amazingly. That end of the street now has a MICA building, a couple of galleries, and some of the most interesting pizza in Baltimore. I was seriously skeptical about it initially, and for the first eight or so time I went there, I would have to say "I can't believe I'm on North Avenue" a few times. But now I'm completely comfortable being there. Here's a sign that things have changed - they even have OUTDOOR SEATING!

I'm really excited for their remodeling. This is easily one of the most exciting places to come along in a while. I've seen some great live music there (there's a jazz duo that plays most Fridays, and Sujay Pathak sings on Saturdays; one night we were treated to a fabulous Dixieland-style outfit with a gorgeous and gorgeously gifted songbird), and Okan Arabacioglu, whose art has appeared in several area galleries and frequently in the City Paper and other local publications, is shifting from manager/bartender/etc to curator - last time we were there, the walls were adorned with some pretty amazing artwork.

So please, give it a try. Recommendations: the Mushroom Lovers pizza, the Reuben (veggie or regular) or the hot wings. If there's a well-dressed Turkish gentleman there, tell him Sean said he makes great kamikaze shots. Try one!

It is really unfortunate that you don't feel safe going to Joe Squared. Do you feel safe going to the Charles Theater or Tapas Teatro? They are 3 blocks away. How do you expect a neighborhood to improve? Until it is gentrified like Federal Hill or Canton you won't make the trip?

C Love, Baltimore, as you probably know, is a city of blocks - 3 of them can make a huge difference. And North Avenue was more than just a street for a very long time now - it was a symbol of Baltimore's decline and decay filled with old department stores now abandoned (a Montgomery Wards, I believe, turned into an overflowing District Court spilling over with drug and violence cases).

Years ago wife parked on North Avenue to visit the thrift store that used to be there. While inside, her tire was slashed & the man who did it "offered" to change it; while he was doing so, the icepick he had used to slash the tire fell out of his front pocket. He picked it up & looked at her. She simply said, "Do what you need to do." The tire, by the way, was practically fused to the car with rust, so the guy had to work his butt off for the $3 she gave him. This happened in broad daylight.

This probably seems pretty minor, but I've heard dozens of similar stories, many of them much worse (I remember a time that a body lay in the median for a day or so before someone noticed, and the one time we got gas on North Ave a cop pulled up and asked us if we had called about the gunshots; I didn't top off). So it's a very recent development that most folks feel at all comfortable being on North Avenue.

BUT it's a great development. Gentrification is a tricky thing. On the one hand, it's always great when an area can sustain restaurants and art galleries, especially after a long period when the only businesses that could exist were liquor stores and drug stores (if I understand correctly, the building Joe2 is in was used as a brothel for a number of years). On the other, longtime residents are often forced out by revitalizing forces. But in this case, the western portion of North Avenue wasn't primarily residential anyway. And it's worth noting that wikipedia's entry states, "Major landmarks on North Avenue include Coppin State University Joe Squared, and the Great Blacks in Wax Museum." Let's remember, too, that historically, North Avenue was a great street - it was full of shops and businesses, houses and apartments. So all the changes on North could perhaps be seen as more of a return to a previous era than an abrupt shift.

Anyway. I guess I'm feeling a bit wordy today! But I am thrilled at the changes I'm seeing in Baltimore and on North Ave, and places like Joe2 have a lot to do with them, as do the enterprising and visionary folks who are willing to invest in areas once thought of as dead zone, business-wise. And I wholehearteldy encourage everyone to visit Joe2 at least once, just so you too can say "I can't believe I'm on North Avenue!"

Joe2 was the Pump Room, a throwback bar with the finest crabcake in its day (through the 70's)--a hard salty crust encasing backfin lumps swimming in butter and mayo.

I don't wish to convey the image that I only hang out in yuppie places. I often eat out at places in "transitional" neighborhoods, like Lexington Market, Attman's and No New Da Ji. I've also been to some places in some real off the beaten track places of Appalachia, as well as some real good old boy joints in the south and the midwest.

My point, however, was that North Avenue seems to carry a vibe beyond transitional or sketchy. Now, again, perhaps the area has changed, and I can see how the proximity to MICA as well as Bolton Hill could facilitate that.

That part of North Ave. is no problem during the day. I wait for buses out there all the time with no problem. Wouldn't do it at night, but I stay home at night.

You want some fun, head up to Monument and Linwood or so. Or Baltimore and Highland.

During the discussion of North Avenue, I was thinking back to the time when the current Baltimore school administration building was Polytechnic Institute and Western high school was at Howard and Center Streets. My sister started at Western downtown and was in the 1st graduating class in the Poly Western facility at Cold Spring & Falls.

Anyway, we lived in Brooklyn (not in New York) and my sister and I had taken a bus up to Memorial Stadium for an Oriole game. There was a big crowd and the game ran late and, when we finally got outside the stadium, the only buses we saw were going north.

We started to walk, thinking we would grab the bus on the way down. That night, we walked all the way home starting across 33rd Street, down Saint Paul Street/Light Street. The only bus that passed us was "Not in Service".

I don't recall that we felt uncomfortable at all, even when we reached the harbor. At the southwest corner of Light Street and Pratt (the block where McCormick's was) was a noisy, rowdy bar. I no longer remember the name, but we were tired and thirsty (and underage), so we went in for a soda. We were treated with the upmost respect.

We walked on through South Baltimore, then over the Hanover Street Bridge (where a bus finally passed us), then up Patapsco Avenue to Brooklyn Avenue and arrived home. At this point I don't remember how long it took, but it was, I'd guess, about 3-4 hours.

We walked through all those neighborhoods without any fear. This was the mid to late 60’s.

The neighborhood where I grew up is now considered a "bad neighborhood".